Do they bite?. They look grusome?. A bullet to the head ends their missery?.
Zombies they are. And shut up
Zombies they are. And shut up
Poll: Are Left 4 Dead/28 Days Later "zombies" really zombies?
- Thread starter LaMer
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Well I can't speak on the L4D ones since I haven't played the game a whole lot, but 28 Days Later I can. Since they don't die and get reanimated when they get infected I don't really count them as real zombies since the whole point of zombies is that they're DEAD. My absolute favorite zombie movie and the zombies aren't actually zombies, the world kinda sucks sometimes.
I'm not entirely certain how accurate it is to say that, with slow zombies, the focus is on the zombie. I just haven't seen that in any movie examples, or books. I see the exact opposite, really.CaptainCrunch said:
Look at Night of the Living Dead. For most of the movie, you don't even see the zombies. They're background noise to the human drama unfolding inside the house, as the people realize that some of them are just as heartless as the zombies. The focus is on the people.
Contrast that with some of the "fast zombie" movies. Because the zombies are a more immediate threat, they are also more present in the narrative. The human drama takes a slight dip to make room for the monster spectacle. The Dawn of the Dead remake still had some of the human drama, but it wasn't as prominent--you start to fall into stock characters, because it's a more efficient way of characterizing folks.
In a well-done zombie movie/book/series, the zombies eventually become that "background noise." They are the ever-present lurking threat, but they're not always right in your face. The real story is in how the people adapt, as individuals and as a group (or as warring factions), in this world of human islands in an undead ocean. That is, until the fecal matter connects with the rotary impeller, so to speak.
I think both zombies can have a place in compelling zombie fiction, because I think what makes it compelling is less the type of zombies, and more how the people react to the zombies. While it is true that fast zombie stories tend to become "zombie hunting" rather than "zombie survival," I'm not sure the cause-effect relationship has been concretely established--it could be that the zombie hunting aspect that determines the choice for faster zombies (more interesting opponents). The difference is the survivors.
Pure fantasy yes, but the concept isn't all that unbelievable, it's just that people rarely bother to write it well or deal with the details.Netrigan said:
The key element as to whether a "zombie apocolypse" would be viable has entirely to do with the nature of the outbreak. If your dealing with a "patient zero" situation where an infection started with a single sick person passing it to another person who passed it to a couple more people, etc... then yes, the goverment could contain that. Although the methods would not be pleasant.
On the other hand if your dealing with a plague, say some kind of ultra-durable airborn virus in the atmosphere to which only a small percentage of the population is immune... well that's going to kill the military and goverment officials to and wipe out most of that infrastructure as well. If say 99% of the people on the planet suddenly fell over like they were pole axed, and then got up 5 minutes later as brain eating zombies, that's the end of civilization, especially seeing as a lot of the surviving 1% would probably be going "WTF" when they were down and be taken out immediatly when they got up.
Another similar situation that could work is the "slow burn" that is to say a widespread disease (or curse or something) with a relatively long incubation time. What this would mean is that the infrastructure would be flooded with the sick, and in cases of mass casualties like this places like military bases, fire departments, schools, and other locations are used to house the people while efforts are made to deal with the overall problem. In such a case if a lot of those guys got up and started killing/spreading the plague at the same time, you'd have the zombies effectively acting by surprise in the middle of the infrastructure itself and wiping out a lot of the military and first responders before anyway else. For a lot of the uninfected, the actual danger would start moving out from the emergency services, and a lot of people would probably die because by heading to the places we're trained to seek help they would be running into the highest concentrations.
The problem is that most cruddy zombie fiction doesn't bother to spend a lot of time explaining the situation, or how it developed. Oftentimes glossing over the situation by argueing that the protaganists or even thew news sources making the original reports had no idea how it actually happened or go so bad so quickly. To your typical member of the mainstream, it doesn't matter how it all makes sense, they just want a bunch of zombies to make bloody messes, and act as weapon fodder.
Truthfully though, barring something in the atmosphere the biggest issue would probably involve Naval forces getting involved. A lot of those big boats are pretty much floating command centers, and task forces are pretty much equipped to end entire civilizations (or at least American ones are, even if we never do it). While the army/marines/police/national guard would all be overrun, a couple carriers and their escorts coming back to the US (especially if the globe was a shambles) would make a huge differance, and it's doubtful that they wouldbe so stupid as to take the risks allowing things that could spread the problem getting on board. Though this means you'd probably see a lot of the "cold and heartless" military stereotype from this genere of fiction... it would actually be appropriate, and in the long run probably lead to saving the most people and dealing with the problem. Typically such fiction is told from the perspective of "ordinary people" trying to survive, and rarely from the perspective of say an Admiral trying to restore the United States.
Incidently the bit about the Navy would also apply to a lot of other nations (like the UK) with powerful naval forces spread out all over the place.
It might just be that I'm in New London where we have a major submarine base, but I've always thought the Navy returning in a situation like that would make for a good variation in the zombie genere for a TV series or whatever. Various stories have dealt with naval ships or subs being overrun, but typically only because the people calling the shots were stupid, or due to an unlikely chain of events.
Even so I will say that with everything else done except pockets of survivors, I don't think the Navy would restore things easily, I just think it could do it eventually.
If you get attacked/bitten by said infected, die, and come back to "life" infected with same flesh craving problem, your a zombie. Dieing being the operative word here.
im my short experiance with zombies, all of which comes from Resident Evil GAMES and some films, yea im not that into horror, a Zombie is the work of the Umbrella Corporation, thats how ive allways seen them, and probably allways will, while others while undead and wanting to eat you, me, everyone, aren't for this i shall blame capcom and my mate for making me play they dam game when i was a kid.
Now you've ruined me, because just for the challange if a actual Living person with super rabies apocolapes breaks out I will use the Term "Living guy with super rabies" in place of "Zombie.archvile93 said:
"Watch yourself, living people with super rabies ahead."
"OH NO BRENA JUST GOT BIT BY THE LIVING GUY WITH SUPER RABIES!!"
"Living guys with super rabies.... I hate living guys with super rabies... I'm going to kill all these living guys with super rabies....
Since real zombies don't exist, they're whatever the fuck you want them to be.
Seriously, how pedantic can you be?
And as a side note, they don't even call them zombies in L4D. That's a recurring "thing", that only the people who don't know what they are, like the survivors, call them zombies. Officially, they're infected.
Seriously, how pedantic can you be?
And as a side note, they don't even call them zombies in L4D. That's a recurring "thing", that only the people who don't know what they are, like the survivors, call them zombies. Officially, they're infected.
but wait,....Diseased, Redbull Addicted, Corpse of Undead but Living...AssholeThatLankyBastard said:
gives you......uh oh.
Well yeah I wasn't discussing the game based upon how it's played, or the difficulty. Just saying that the "zombies" do attack, even when not provoked. Curse you AI. ><monkey_man said:
I don't consider the 28 days/weeks later monsters to be zombies. They are regular humans infected with "RAAAAGE!!!" that attack everyone they see that isn't infected.
Read about the movie a few days ago, and one statement said that the director(or someone) wanted to give us our generations zombies. Living dead was a considered old concept, so they went with biohazardous monsters.
Read about the movie a few days ago, and one statement said that the director(or someone) wanted to give us our generations zombies. Living dead was a considered old concept, so they went with biohazardous monsters.
I dunno about the Left4death zombies, but the 28 days later are definitely not zombies. They are not even death, so how could they be zombies?
well valve itself calls them infected, since the old term for zombie was a walking dead corpse.
but they do seem to be decaying and mutating which can be considered as zombies, in fact the modern term of zombie is confuse because lately each fan fiction seems to give a diifferent meaning to zombie, nowadays it seems that a zombie is a human infected with some sort of virus because L4D series, I am legend and walking dead and a few other use this way to describe a zombie
but they do seem to be decaying and mutating which can be considered as zombies, in fact the modern term of zombie is confuse because lately each fan fiction seems to give a diifferent meaning to zombie, nowadays it seems that a zombie is a human infected with some sort of virus because L4D series, I am legend and walking dead and a few other use this way to describe a zombie
From a technical standpoint, there are Infected and there are Zombies. Infected have some sort of virus that makes them behave like zombies. Zombies are reanimated corpses that behave like zombies.
Does it matter? No. But there is a small difference.
Does it matter? No. But there is a small difference.
Depends on what the official definition of a 'zombie' is. (If there is an official definition)
If the official definition is a corpse risen from the grave, then no.
If the official definition is something along the lines of 'A mindless body intent on eating brains' then yes.
I personally don't care, zombies are zombies.
If the official definition is a corpse risen from the grave, then no.
If the official definition is something along the lines of 'A mindless body intent on eating brains' then yes.
I personally don't care, zombies are zombies.